Emile Mercier

Emile Mercier (10 August 1901 – 17 March 1981) was an Australian cartoonist, best known for his iconic cartoons regularly published in the Sydney Sun newspaper from 1949 to 1968, and which have been collected and published in 11 books.

Biography Mercier was born in Nouméa, New Caledonia on 10 August 1901, the son of a French baker. He came to Australia in 1919 and took a clerical position with a commercial house doing translations during the day and spending the evenings taking classes at the Julian Ashton Art School. In the early 1920s following the sale of one of his drawings to a Sydney newspaper he quit his job to make a living from drawing. In another, a crow is showing another crow several golf-balls among the eggs in her nest, complaining that '... my husband has a detestable habit of leaving his balls lying all over the place!' (I'm Waiting For an Earthquake, p. 52)

While on the staff of Smith's Weekly, Mercier contributed a cartoon which included a cat in the foreground. Mercier added a cross under the cat's tail, representing its anus. The Smith's Weekly art editor rejected the cartoon and gave Mercier an angry lecture about including 'smutty gimmicks' in his work. Mercier then drew a down-drawn holland blind under the cat's tail, which hid the cat's anus but emphasised its presence, and re-submitted the cartoon.

Mercier retired from The Sun in 1968 and died on 17 March 1981 in Sydney from Parkinson's disease.

Cartoon comic-book characters invented by Mercier include: Tripalong Hoppity (a parody of Hopalong Cassidy); Wocko the Beaut; Supa Dupa Man (a parody of Superman); Mudrake the Magician (a parody of Mandrake the Magician); Speed Umplestoop (a parody of Flash Gordon); Three Gun Ferdie (a cowboy who carries an extra gun in his chest....); Yes, What? (a popular radio comedy show of the 1940s); Doc McSwiggle.

Emile Mercier's works make up part of the storyline of Australian pop fiction author, Robert G Barrett's book, Les Norton and the Case of the Talking Pie Crust.

Mercier illustrated the Mark Vizzers novel She'll do Me! as well as several collections of yarns by Australian folklorist Keith Garvey.

Works by Emile Mercier

Mercier's newspaper cartoons were published in numerous collections:

Wake Me Up At Nine! (Angus & Robertson, 1950) Sauce or Mustard? (1951) Gravy Pie (Angus and Robertson, 1953) Hang On Please! (Angus and Robertson, 1954) My Ears Are Killing Me! (Angus and Robertson, 1955) I'm Waiting for an Earthquake! (Angus and Robertson, 1956) Follow That Wardrobe! (Angus and Robertson, 1957) My Wife's Swallowed a Bishop! (Angus and Robertson, n.d. circa 1958) Is My Slip Showing? (Angus and Robertson, 1959) Hold It! (Angus and Robertson, 1960) Don't Shove! (1961) Emile Mercier's Australia: An outstanding collection from the best of Emile Mercier's drawings (Project Publications, no date).

Other works by Emile Mercier:

Pippy. Sydney : Frank Johnson Publications, Osker. Frank Johnson Publications, Tibby Tims. Sydney : Frank Johnson Publications, The New Big Hit Comics. Frank Johnson Publications, [194?] Mudrake and the Plotters of Skroomania. Frank Johnson Publications, 1945 Krazy Kracks. Guest writer, George Blaikie. Frank Johnson Publications, 1941 Supa Dupa Man : the Big Curl. Frank Johnson Publications, Tripalong Hoppity the Fearless Texas Ranger. Frank Johnson Publications, 1945 Wocko the Beaut and the Smugglers of Bindie Eye Bay. Frank Johnson Publications, [194-?]